The JU-F, which has already declared its opposition to the passage of the bill in its current form, saying it would fight it ‘tooth and nail’. The group had warned NGOs to stop supporting a bill which represents ‘western culture’.

“We will not let these senseless women, who depend on American dollars, to work against the Constitution and Islamic Shariah,” a statement issued by JUI-F Islamabad media coordinator Jamshid Abbasi. “Minting dollars in the name of women rights, representatives (women) of these NGOs are earning bad name for Islam.”

JUI-F Islamabad Amir Maulana Abdul Majid Hazarvi was quoted in the statement as being irked over what he termed interference by NGOs in Parliamentary affairs, before calling for legal action to be taken against such members. “How are foreign hands backing them to interfere in our constitutional affairs?” he asked, before demanding that the government should drop all controversial clauses of this bill.”

Leaders of JUI-F said that some women representing NGOs, were trying to impose their dollar driven agenda under the garb of promoting human rights.

They added that the public would never allow Pakistan to be held hostage by a few women.

NGO women dismiss agenda pushing allegations

Leading human rights activist, Dr Farzana Bari, in response to the JUI-F statement, said that allegations were that the Domestic Violence bill was being pushed by US dollars, was baseless. She said that protection of women from domestic violence is the demand of every Pakistani woman. The bill, she said, was drafted by the country’s lawmakers in the standing committees represented by all political parties including the JUI-F.
Human rights activist and filmmaker, Samar Minallah said the protest was against the language and insensitivity shown by JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazl ur Rehman in the Parliament when the bill was introduced on April 4, 2012. It was a protest against a particular mindset. A mindset that tends to trivialise and politicise all women rights issues,” she told The Express Tribune.